I am an appraiser for a local auction house, one that you might have seen on local TV once or twice! As you might imagine, this is a high end, low volume business, which means that every one of us sell things for a lot of currency, however every one of us don’t do it particularly often.
As a sideline, I make private appraisals for anyone who wants their antiques to be diagnosed; I have enough status in my job that I have even been on Antiques Roadshow a few times, however basically, in this area of the country I have become the most reliable expert on custom wood furniture. This section has a lot of artisans in it, and has for generations, which means there is a plethora of amazing handmade furniture to be found if you assume where to look, and my favorite area of the job is that with such a vast array of wood furniture that is still in use after generations, I always discover new artisans. If a family made its own wood furniture to use, and not to sell on the open market, then no one outside that family would assume about it. I like finding treasure troves of outdated handmade wood furniture in houses and estates, and it isn’tabout the currency, either. At this point in my career the currency is good, so I can focus my energies on expanding my expertise about handmade furniture in this area. It seems there is no end to the numbers of talented wood furniture artisans who have lived here over the last 200 years.